Former England captain Hollioake to stay in Afghanistan

KABUL (Pajhwok): Former England ODI captain Adam Hollioake says he intends to remain in his coaching role despite one of his team’s matches being targeted by a suicide bomber.

At least three people were killed and 12 injured when the bomber detonated his device while trying to gain access to the main cricket ground in Kabul on September 13, 2017.

Boost Defenders, Hollioake’s team, were playing Ainak Knights, who are coached by Andy Moles, the former Warwickshire batsman, in the Afghan Super League, at the time.

Hollioake, the former England ODI skipper who has been offered the chance to work with England Lions this winter in Australia, said he considered leaving but decided to stay until the conclusion of the Twenty20 tournament.

Hollioake said he was around 100 metres from the blast site and “felt the vibrations go through my body”. He told the BBC: “There was a game going on between my team and another team that Andy Moles was coaching.

"The protocol is that we have three stages of security. They have to get through the first stage, which this probably was, about 100m from the ground; then there is the second stage, which is about 50m from the ground, and the final stage is about 15-20m from the ground.

“The gentleman was caught at the first checkpoint and, on being caught, he detonated his device and, unfortunately, several of our security and some members of the public were killed.”

Hollioake said: “I wanted to stay until the job was done; I don’t like walking out on anything. This isn’t a Hollywood movie, this is their everyday life. I wanted to give those people the respect that they are due.”